Federal Enterprise Architecture and E-Government: Issues for Information Technology Management

Federal Enterprise Architecture
and E-Government: Issues for
Information Technology Management
Updated April 10, 2008
Jeffrey W. Seifert
Specialist in Information Policy and Technology
Resources, Science and Industry Division

Federal Enterprise Architecture and E-Government:
Issues for Information Technology Management
Summary
Congressional policymakers are concerned about potential inefficiencies and
inefficacies in the operation of the federal government, particularly as it relates to
decisions regarding information technology (IT) investments. These concerns have
increased as federal IT spending has grown to approximately $70 billion annually.
One approach being implemented to reduce duplicative spending and improve cross-
agency collaboration is the use of enterprise architecture (EA) planning across the
federal government. An EA serves as a blueprint of the business operations of an
organization, and the information and technology needed to carry out these functions.
As an information technology management and planning tool, EA planning
represents a business-driven approach to information technology management that
emphasizes interoperability and information sharing. The Federal Enterprise
Architecture (FEA) was started in 2002 by the Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) and continues to be developed today. The FEA is composed of five reference
models: Performance, Business, Service, Data, and Technical. Each of the reference
models represents specific aspects of the FEA and provides a “common language”
for departments and agencies to use in developing shared technology solutions.
To focus efforts on specific areas that may yield savings, OMB has identified
several “Lines of Business” (LoB), which represent non-core business functions
common to many departments and agencies. Some of the current LoBs include
Financial Management, Grants Management, Case Management, Human Resources
Management, Federal Health Architecture, and Information Systems Security.
Within each of the LoB initiatives, the longer term goal is to shift the locus of activity
for these non-core business functions from being replicated by each individual
department and agency, to consolidated shared service centers, or centers of
excellence as they are also referred to, which serve as common service providers for
the other departments and agencies. Departments and agencies are selected to serve
as centers of excellence through a competitive process managed by OMB. Three
other LoBs (Budget Formulation and Execution, Geospatial, and Information
Technology Infrastructure Optimization) focus on the development of common
practices and information standards to facilitate cross-agency interoperability and
collaboration.
Some of the congressional oversight issues related to the FEA include, but are
not limited to, ongoing updates of the reference models, the status of efforts to align
the EAs of individual departments with the FEA, the role of the FEA in developing
a second generation of e-government initiatives, and progress and implications of
consolidating specific business functions across the federal government. In
anticipation of an upcoming presidential administration transition, Congress may also
wish to consider the broader issues of the continuity and future direction of FEA
efforts. This report will be updated as events warrant.

Contents
Background ......................................................1
What is an Enterprise Architecture?...................................2
What is the Federal Enterprise Architecture?............................3
FEA Leadership...............................................4
Chief Architects Forum (CAF)...................................4
Reference Models.................................................5
Lines of Business Initiatives.........................................8
Oversight Issues for Congress.......................................11
For Further Reading...............................................13
List of Figures
Figure 1. The Federal Enterprise Architecture...........................7

Federal Enterprise Architecture and
E-Government: Issues for Information
Technology Management
Background
The federal government spends approximately $70 billion annually on
information technology (IT) goods and services.¹ The Federal Enterprise
Architecture (FEA) has the potential to serve as a critical IT management tool for
achieving greater efficiencies and breaking down the so-called “stove pipes” that
separate individual departments and agencies. The Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) describes the FEA as playing a central role to “ultimately transform
the Federal government into a citizen-centered, results-oriented, and market-based
organization as set forth in the President’s Management Agenda (PMA).”² The FEA
emphasizes developing interoperable standards, facilitating information sharing, and
increasing cross-agency collaboration. The FEA is also expected to play a significant
role in the future development of federal e-government³ and homeland security
initiatives. With these activities in mind, OMB describes the three primary
objectives, or goals, of the FEA as:
^!improving the utilization of information resources to achieve a
citizen-centered government, resulting in proactive policy and
improved decision-making;
^!increasing enterprise architecture practice maturity [experience using
enterprise architecture planning techniques to make decisions
regarding the procurement and use of information technology]
government-wide, resulting in better alignment of IT investments
with mission performance; and
^!increasing cross-agency, intergovernment, and public-private sector
collaboration, resulting in increased common solutions and cost
savings.⁴

¹ U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the United
States Government, Fiscal Year 2009, February 2008, p. 157.
² U.S. Office of Management and Budget, FY07 Budget Formulation: FEA Consolidated
Reference Model Document, May 2005, p. 4.
³ As defined in the E-Government Act, e-government refers to the use of information
technology, including web-based Internet applications, to deliver government information
and services to the public, federal agencies, and other governmental entities (116 Stat. 2809
at 2902).
⁴ U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Enabling Citizen-Centered Electronic
(continued...)

What is an Enterprise Architecture?
In the mid-1980s, John Zachman, a business planning consultant, developed the
Zachman Framework, which was designed to serve as a blueprint, or an architecture,
to facilitate the integration of IT systems.⁵ The “enterprise,” for which an
architecture is created, refers to either a “single organization or mission area that
transcends more than one organizational boundary (e.g., financial management,⁶
homeland security).” The architecture represents a “big picture” view of how the
enterprise operates and carries out its responsibilities. An enterprise architecture
(EA) serves as a blueprint of the business operations of an organization, and the
information and technology needed to carry out these operations, both currently and
prospectively. As such, it is an information technology management and planning
tool. It is designed to be comprehensive and scalable, to account for future growth
needs. EA planning represents a business-driven approach to IT management that
emphasizes interoperability and information sharing.
Since the development of the Zachman Framework, various parts of the federal
government have attempted to work with EAs. For example, the Clinger-Cohen Act
(P.L. 104-106), passed in 1996, tasked agency chief information officers (CIOs) with,
among other responsibilities, “developing, maintaining, and facilitating the
implementation of a sound and integrated information technology architecture for the⁷
executive agency.” The Clinger-Cohen Act defined information technology
architecture as
an integrated framework for evolving or maintaining existing information
technology and acquiring new information technology to achieve the agency’s⁸
strategic goals and information resources management goals.
In September 1999, the Federal Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council⁹
issued its FEA Framework, which was described as a “conceptual model that begins
to define a documented and coordinated structure for cross-cutting businesses and

⁴ (...continued)
Government 2005-2006 FEA PMO Action Plan, March 2005, p. 17.
⁵ J.A. Zachman, “A Framework for Information Systems Architecture,” IBM Systems
Journal, vol. 26, no. 3, 1987.
⁶ U.S. General Accounting Office, Information Technology: The Federal Enterprise
Architecture and Agencies’ Enterprise Architectures are Still Maturing, GAO Testimony
GAO-04-798T, May 19, 2004, p. 4.
⁷ 110 STAT. 685.
⁸ 110 STAT. 686.
⁹ Originally created by Executive Order 13011 and later codified into law by the E-
Government Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-347), the CIO Council serves as the “principal
interagency forum for improving agency practices related to the design, acquisition,
development, modernization, use, operation, sharing, and performance of Federal
Government information resources.”

design developments in the Government.”¹⁰ In the glossary of the document, the
FEA itself is defined as
A strategic information asset base, which defines the business, the information
necessary to operate the business, the technologies necessary to support the
business operations, and the transitional processes necessary for implementing
new technologies in response to the changing business needs. It is a¹¹
representation or blueprint.
The E-Government Act (P.L. 107-347), passed in 2002, tasks the Administrator
of the Office of E-Government with overseeing the development of EAs, both within
and across agencies. The act defined enterprise architecture as
(A) means — (I) a strategic information asset base, which defines the mission;
(ii) the information necessary to perform the mission; (iii) the technologies
necessary to perform the mission; and (iv) the transitional processes for
implementing new technologies in response to changing mission needs; and (B)
includes — (I) a baseline architecture; (ii) a target architecture; and (iii) a¹²
sequencing plan.
What is the Federal Enterprise Architecture?
The FEA is a planning and management tool used to guide federal information
technology investments, with a specific focus on improving efficiency and
identifying common applications that can be used government-wide. It is designed
to ensure that IT investments support the functions of government, rather than
allowing technology choices determine how the government carries out its
operations.¹³ OMB Circular A-11, Preparation and Submission of Budget Estimates,
last updated in June 2006, requires federal departments and agencies to demonstrate
that their information technology investments align with FEA standards and
guidelines in order to receive OMB approval.¹⁴ As a whole, the FEA is intended to
“enable the federal government to identify opportunities to leverage technology to

¹⁰ Chief Information Officers Council, Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework, Version

1.1 September 1999 p. 2.

¹¹ Ibid., p. C-5
¹² 116 STAT. 2902.
¹³ State governments are also active in developing their own enterprise architectures. The
National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) released the third
version of its Enterprise Architecture Development Tool-Kit in October 2004, to serve as
a guide for state and local government agencies. NASCIO’s Adaptive Enterprise
Architecture Development Program has received funding from the Department of Justice to
support state EA efforts, with a particular emphasis on facilitating the development of state
information sharing capabilities. See [http://www.nascio.org/hotissues/EA/].
¹⁴ See Section 53 of OMB Circular A-11 at [http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars/a11/
current_year/s53.pdf].

^!reduce redundancy;
^!facilitate horizontal (cross-federal) and vertical (federal, state, and
local) information sharing;
^!establish a direct relationship between IT and mission/program
performance to support citizen-centered, customer-focused
government; and
^!maximize IT investments to better achieve mission outcomes.”¹⁵
FEA Leadership
Ongoing activities related to the development of the FEA are carried out through
the FEA Program Management Office (FEA PMO), which was established in
February 2002 and is part of OMB. The manager of the FEA PMO is commonly
referred to as the federal chief enterprise architect. Robert Haycock is recognized as
serving as the first federal chief architect when he began as acting manager of the
FEA PMO in June 2002. He was later named to the position permanently in October
2003.¹⁶ Following Robert Haycock’s return to the National Business Center at the
Department of Interior in April 2004, the position was filled on an interim basis by
Richard Brozen, who was detailed to OMB from the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) until October 2004. In January 2005, Richard Burk began
as the new chief architect, after serving as the chief architect at the Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD).¹⁷ He held this position until his retirement
from government service in September 2007. In October 2007 Kshemendra Paul was
detailed from the Department of Justice to OMB as the acting chief architect. In
January 2008 he was named to the position permanently.¹⁸
Chief Architects Forum (CAF)
To facilitate ongoing enterprise architecture efforts across the federal
government, the Architecture and Infrastructure Committee of the federal CIO¹⁹
Council created the Chief Architects Forum (CAF) in April 2004. The members
of the CAF include the chief architects from federal departments and agencies. These
individuals are responsible for ensuring that the technical infrastructures of their

¹⁵ U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Expanding E-Government: Improved Service
Delivery for the American People Using Information Technology, December 2005, p. 2;
U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the United
States Government, Fiscal Year 2006, February 2005, p. 178.
¹⁶ Jason Miller, “OMB Officially Names Haycock Chief Architect,” Government Computer
News, October 8, 2003, [http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/23786-1.html?topic=
daily-updates].
¹⁷ David Perera, “New Chief Architect Faces Daunting Challenges,” Federal Computer
Week, December 5, 2004, [http://www.fcw.com/print/10_44/news/84679-1.html].
¹⁸ Jason Miller, “OMB Names Paul as Chief Architect,” Federal Computer Week, January

16, 2008, [http://www.fcw.com/online/news/151315-1.html].

¹⁹ The CAF website is available at [http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ChiefArchitects
Forum%20].

agencies are able to fully support the operational needs of their agencies. While this
requires a strong understanding of the business functions of their agencies, enterprise
architects are primarily focused just on building and maintaining the technology
(hardware and software). In contrast, CIOs are generally responsible for both
operational and technological issues and serve at a higher, executive-level capacity.
Also, while the department-level CIO position and responsibilities are statutorily
defined by the Clinger-Cohen Act (P.L. 104-106), individuals serving as chief
architects may be doing so in addition to other assigned responsibilities. The CAF
meets quarterly and, similar to the CIO Council, serves as a means for sharing
information and identifying solutions to common problems.
Reference Models
The FEA is composed of five reference models: Performance, Business, Service,
Data, and Technical. Each of the reference models represents specific aspects of the
FEA, and provides a framework, or a shared language, for departments and agencies
to develop technology solutions that can be used by the federal government
collectively. The reference models are updated as needed to reflect changes in
applications and services. Brief descriptions of the five reference models, drawn
from the EA website, are as follows:
^!Performance Reference Model — a framework for measuring the
output of major information technology investments and their
contributions to program performance.²⁰
^!Business Reference Model — a framework for describing the
federal government business operations independent of the agencies²¹
that perform them.
^!Service Component Reference Model — a framework for
identifying information technology service components
(applications) used to support business and/or performance
obj ect i v es.²²
^!Data Reference Model — a framework that, at an aggregate level,
describes the data and information used to support government²³

program delivery and business operations.
²⁰ For more detail, see [http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/a-^2-prm.html].
²¹ For more detail, see [http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/a-3-brm.html].
²² For more detail, see [http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/a-4-srm.html].
²³ For more detail, see [http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/a-^5-drm.html].

^!Technical Reference Model — a framework for describing the
standards, specifications, and technologies that support and enable²⁴
the delivery of service components (applications) and capabilities.
The OMB developed the FEA reference models through its FEA Program
Management Office, in conjunction with the Federal CIO Council and the General
Services Administration (GSA), for federal agencies and departments to use in their
IT budget and planning process.²⁵ The Performance Reference Model (PRM)
provides a standardized framework for measuring the contribution of major IT
initiatives that fulfill existing legislatively-mandated management processes. The
processes that the PRM emphasizes are drawn primarily from the E-Government Act
of 2002, the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996, and the Government Performance and²⁶
Results Act (GPRA) of 1993.
While the PRM emphasizes government performance goals applicable to nearly
all executive branch agencies, OMB describes the Business Reference Model (BRM)²⁷
as the foundation of the FEA itself. The BRM is based on a functional view of
government operations, rather than an organizational view. This orientation reflects
the business-focused nature of enterprise architecture IT management.
The Service Component Reference Model (SRM), in turn, is intended to identify
applications and components that, independent of their business function, can
provide a foundation of technologies that are reusable government-wide.
The Data Reference Model (DRM) identifies standards for harmonizing how
data is described, categorized, and shared across the federal government, with an²⁸
emphasis on information sharing and data reuse by applications in the SRM.
The Technical Reference Model (TRM) identifies the core technologies and
standards for facilitating the reuse of applications and components in the SRM, with
an emphasis on interoperability and security.
The five reference models were collectively updated and released as the
Consolidated Reference Model (CRM) Version 2.0 in June 2006²⁹ and updated again
most recently in October 2007 (version 2.3). The reference models are updated

²⁴ For more detail, see [http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/a-^6-trm.html].
²⁵ U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Enabling Citizen-Centered Electronic
Government, March 31, 2005, p. 6, available at [http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/
document s / 2005_NDU.pdf ] .
²⁶ U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Federal Enterprise Architecture Program
Management Office, The Performance Reference Model Version 1.0, p. 11, available on the
OMB website at [http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/documents/fea-prm1.PDF].
²⁷ See [http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/a-1-fea.html].
²⁸ U.S. Office of Management and Budget, FY07 Budget Formulation: FEA Consolidated
Reference Model Document, May 2005, pp. 5-6.
²⁹ U.S. Office of Management and Budget, FEA Consolidated Reference Model Document
Version 2.0 (FY08 Budget Formulation), June 2006.

annually and are used in preparing the federal budget.³⁰ A graphical representation
of the relationship of the five reference models to each other, as it appears in various
OMB documents and presentations, is included below.
Figure 1. The Federal Enterprise Architecture

^Source:^[^h^t^t^p^:^/^/^www.^whⁱ^t^e^h^o^u^s^e^.^g^o^v^/^o^m^b^/^e^g^o^v^/^a^-²^-^E^A^M^o^d^e^l^s^N^E^W²^.^h^t^m^l^]^.
In December 2006, the FEA PMO released the Federal Transition Framework
(FTF) Version 1.0. The FTF is described as a “single information source for³¹
government-wide IT policy objectives and cross-agency initiatives.” It
encompasses initiatives such as the Quicksilver projects and the Lines of Business
projects, as well as other government-wide initiatives, such as the effort to transition
all federal agency network backbones to Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) and
Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12) to develop a common
identification standard for all federal employees and contractors.
The FTF extends the FEA reference models by providing a “catalog of
architectural information and implementation guidance for cross-agency initiatives”
that is aligned with the reference models of the FEA.³² The FTF is intended to help
agencies tailor their own enterprise architectures to be compatible with the cross-
agency initiatives, and to ensure agencies’ budget proposals support their enterprise
architecture transition strategies (the tasks and milestones that define what needs to
be accomplished to transition from their current EAs to their target EAs that will
better facilitate cross-agency initiatives). To that end, the FTF is intended to
accomplish four larger goals:
³⁰ U.S. Office of Management and Budget, FEA Consolidated Reference Model Document
Version 2.3, October 2007, [http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/documents/FEA_CRM_
v23_Final_Oct_2007.pdf].
³¹ U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Federal Transition Framework Usage Guide
Version 1.0, December 2006, [http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/documents/FTF_
Usage_Guide_Pilot_Final_Dec_2006.pdf].
³² U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Memorandum for Agency Chief Information
Officers and Chief Architects, “The Federal Transition Framework Version 1.0,” December

22, 2006,

[ h t t p : / / www.whitehouse.gov/ omb/egov/documents/FT F_Releas e _ M e mo _ V e r 10_200612

22.pdf].

^!increase agency awareness and participation in cross-agency
initiatives;
^!increase the alignment of agency enterprise architecture with federal
IT policy decisions or other forms of official guidance;
^!increase sharing and reuse of common cross-agency business
processes, service components, and technology standards; and
^!increase collaboration through agency participation in cross-agency
communities of practice.
Lines of Business Initiatives
The first generation of Bush Administration e-government initiatives,
sometimes referred to as the Quicksilver projects, were proposed in 2001.³³ Since
that time, these initiatives have been mostly successful in achieving various project-
specific milestones and objectives, although collectively attempts to attain full cross-³⁴
agency collaboration have been somewhat limited. The OMB expressed an interest
in having the next generation of e-government projects have a broader government-
wide character. To that end, in spring 2004, after reviewing data collected from
agencies for the development of the FEA and formulating the annual federal budget,
OMB identified “five major collaborative initiatives to transform government,
improve services to citizens, and deliver substantial savings.”³⁵ The five areas³⁶
included Financial Management, Human Resources Management, Grants
Management, Case Management, and Federal Health Architecture. These initiatives
were chosen, in part, because they represent core business functions common to
many departments and agencies, and/or have the potential to reap significant
efficiency and efficacy gains. Hence, they are strong candidates for utilizing some
of the more transformative e-government practices, such as “buy once, use many,”

³³ Pursuant to the July 18, 2001 OMB Memorandum M-01-28, an E-Government Task Force
was established to create a strategy for achieving the Bush Administration’s e-government
goals. In doing so, the Task Force identified 23 interagency initiatives designed to better
integrate agency operations and information technology investments. A twenty-fourth
initiative, a government-wide payroll process project, was subsequently added by the
President’s Management Council. These initiatives are sometimes referred to as the
Quicksilver projects. A list of the projects is available at [http://www.gpoaccess.gov/
usbudget/fy06/pdf/ap_cd_rom/9_3.pdf].
³⁴ U.S. General Accounting Office, Electronic Government: Potential Exists for Enhancing
Collaboration on Four Initiatives, GAO Report GAO-04-6, October 2003.
³⁵ U.S. Office of Management and Budget. Enabling Citizen-Centered Electronic
Government 2005-2006 FEA PMO Action Plan, March 2005, p. 11,
[http://www.whi t e house.go v/ omb/ egov/ document s / 2005_FEA_PMO_Act i on_Plan_FIN
AL.pdf].
³⁶ For a detailed analysis of the Financial Management Line of Business, see CRS Report
RL33765, OMB’s Financial Management Line of Business Initiative: Background, Issues,
and Observations, by Garrett Hatch.

breaking down the so-called “stove pipes,” and contributing to a shared
infrastructure. In a 2005 report, OMB estimated that these five Lines of Business
(LoB) initiatives, currently in their operational phases, would create $5 billion in
savings over ten years (by 2015).³⁷
In March 2005, OMB established a task force for a sixth project, the Information
Systems Security (ISS) LoB initiative. This IT security initiative is intended to
address common security weaknesses faced by many agencies, and generally improve
the state of federal information security. Similar to the first five LoB initiatives, the
ISS LoB initiative emphasizes the development of shared service centers to carry out
common tasks. For this particular LoB initiative, four areas are targeted for
consolidation; security training, Federal Information Security Management Act
(FISMA) reporting, situational awareness/incident response, and the selection,
evaluation, and implementation of security products. According to President Bush’s
FY2009 budget proposal, shared service centers have been selected for security
training and FISMA reporting and efforts are underway to migrate agencies to these
centers by the second quarter of FY2010. The ISS LoB will also be used to facilitate
the Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) initiative. The TIC initiative is intended to
“optimize individual external connections, including Internet points of presence,” by
reducing the total number of external connections from more than 1,000 to
approximately 50, and establish centralized gateway monitoring to detect and prevent
cyber threats to federal networks.³⁸
Updated descriptions of these six initiatives and their primary objectives, as
provided in Table 9-9 of President Bush’s FY2009 budget proposal³⁹ are:
^!Financial Management — to standardize and consolidate the
government’s financial systems and financial business processes⁴⁰
through the establishment of shared service centers (SSC).
^!Human Resource Management — to use government-wide,
modern, cost-effective, standardized, and interoperable human
resource solutions to provide common core functionality to support
the strategic management of human capital through the
establishment of SSCs.⁴¹

³⁷ Ibid., p. 12.
³⁸ U.S. Office of Management and Budget, M-08-16, Memorandum for Chief Information
Officers, Guidance for Trusted Internet Connection Statement of Capability Form (SOC),
April 4, 2008, [http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/memoranda/fy2008/m08-16.pdf]
³⁹ This table was published as supplemental material of the Analytical Perspectives volume
of the President’s FY2009 proposed budget: [http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/
fy2009/pdf/ap_cd_rom/9_9.pdf].
⁴⁰ For more detailed information, see [http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/
c-6-2-financial.html ].
⁴¹ For more detailed information, see [http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/
c-6-4-human.html ].

^!Grants Management — developing solutions to standardize and
streamline the grants management process governmentwide.⁴²
^!Case Management — using common data standards and shared
architectures to easily and appropriately share case management
information within and between federal and non-federal agencies.⁴³
^!Federal Health Architecture — a collaborative effort to foster
interoperability between healthcare systems across the nation.⁴⁴
^!Information Systems Security — establishing common solutions
for information systems security through shared service centers.⁴⁵
In February 2006, the Bush Administration announced the creation of three
additional LoBs. They include IT Infrastructure Optimization, Geospatial Systems,
and Budget Formulation and Execution. During FY2006, interagency task forces
were established for each new LoB to assess current circumstances, and identify
opportunities for consolidation to be proposed during the FY2008 budget review. In
contrast to the first six Lines of Business initiatives, which emphasize the
consolidation of activities at shared service centers, the most recent three Lines of
Business initiatives instead focus more on the development of common practices and
information standards to facilitate cross-agency interoperability and collaboration.
As described in the President’s FY2009 budget proposal, the primary objectives of
the three new LoBs include:
^!Budget Formulation and Execution — enhancing Federal agency
and central budget processes by identifying and implementing
modern, interoperable, flexible, cost effective, and optimized
solutions to support all phases of the formulation and execution of⁴⁶
the federal budget.
^!Geospatial — developing a coordinated approach to produce,
maintain, and use geospatial data and services across the federal

⁴² For more detailed information, see [http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/
c-6-3-gr ants.html ].
⁴³ For more detailed information, see [http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/
c-6-1-case.html ].
⁴⁴ For more detailed information, see [http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/
c-6-5-ederal.html ].
⁴⁵ For more detailed information, see [http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/c-6-6-its.html].
⁴⁶ For more detailed information, see [http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/
c-6-7-bfe.html ].

government to reduce long-term costs of geo-information delivery
and access.⁴⁷
^!Information Technology Infrastructure — identifying
opportunities for IT infrastructure consolidation and optimization
and developing government-wide common solutions to realize cost⁴⁸
savings.
As OMB continues to collect and analyze information from the departments and
agencies, it will be able to further develop the FEA. In turn, OMB is likely to
identify additional opportunities for e-government initiatives based around the LoBs.
Oversight Issues for Congress
As the federal enterprise architecture initiative continues to evolve, Congress
may decide to consider several issues related to implementation and oversight. These
issues include, but are not limited to, the following:
^!the overall effectiveness of the federal enterprise architecture at
improving federal IT management and reducing IT spending;
^!the progress of ongoing efforts to update and enhance the five
reference models, and how effective they are at identifying cross-
agency redundancies;
^!how well the enterprise architectures of the individual departments
and agencies align with the federal enterprise architecture;
^!how OMB is using the FEA to evaluate the IT business cases
submitted by agencies with their yearly budget requests and how
much money has been saved through this process;
^!how the federal enterprise architecture is being used to address
federal information security problems;
^!how the federal enterprise architecture is facilitating and benefitting
large-scale IT projects such as agency-level technology
modernization efforts, the federal government’s adoption of Internet
Protocol version 6 (IPv6), the 24 Quicksilver e-government
initiatives, and government-wide information sharing;
^!the development and performance of the next generation of
collaborative e-government initiatives based on the Lines of
Business;
^!whether current funding arrangements and interagency procurement
regulations will constrain the ability of the centers of excellence to
make necessary upgrades over time and to compete effectively in
public-private competitive sourcing situations;

⁴⁷ For more detailed information, see:
[ ht t p: / / www.whi t e house.gov/ omb/ egov/ c -6-8-gl ob.ht ml ] .
⁴⁸ For more detailed information, see [http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/c-6-9-ioi.html]

^!potential collaboration opportunities and/or lessons to be learned
from state government EA effort; and
^!the continuity and future direction of FEA efforts with the upcoming
transition of presidential administrations.

For Further Reading
Chief Information Officers Council, Architecture Principles for the U.S.
Government, August 2007, available at [http://www.cio.gov/documents/
Architecture_Principles_US_Govt_8-2007.pdf] .
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